Data storage cartridges typically comprise a data storage media, such as magnetic tape, which are inserted into a separate data storage drive so that data may be read and/or written on the data storage media. Such cartridges are convenient means of storing large quantities of data which are accessed occasionally. They are particularly useful in automated data storage libraries which can contain large numbers of the cartridges on storage shelves and employ a robot accessor to access a cartridge when needed and deliver the cartridge to a data storage drive.
The cartridge must be open or opened so that the media can be inserted into the data storage drive.
In the case of a single reel magnetic tape cartridge, the tape may have a leader block which is engaged by a threading pin, and then threaded into the data storage drive. If the tape is in a dual reel cartridge, an expanse of the tape must be inserted into the data storage drive and unwound from one reel and onto another reel of the cartridge. If the data storage media is an optical disk, often the entire disk must be removed from the cartridge and inserted in the data storage drive.
Removable magnetic disks in the form of floppy disks are ubiquitous, and removable hard disks have been tried, most notably, as removable disk packs. In each instance, the cartridge must be open, or opened, so that the disk may be contacted by a read/write head. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,246 illustrates various types of media in a common form factor cartridges, but all are open or openable in order to provide access to the media.
An open, or openable, cartridge allows debris to enter the data storage drive—cartridge interface. As the result, technologies that are employed are those that can tolerate such debris, severely limiting the data density of the media. Portable magnetic disk drives, particularly, emphasize high data capacity and high data access performance in a small size, requiring both high data density and precise tolerances. As is known to those of skill in the art, portable magnetic disk drives are therefore typically encased to prevent the introduction of debris into the drive. Any opening of the drive would likely result in failure of the drive. Further, robot accessors occasionally drop a cartridge, or misplace a cartridge such that it is handled roughly, and manual handling is also likely to result in an occasional dropped or roughly handled cartridge. Detachable data storage devices are known, for example, in U.S. Pat. Re. No. 34,369, or Japanese Patent 7-220464, but such devices are not truly portable, in that they are not capable of rough handling such as would be caused either by a robot accessor or by manual handling. U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,360 employs three shock pads and a flex circuit connecting a PCB connector at the back of a disk drive to a cable connector of the cartridge. The PCB connector is at the end of the disk drive which faces the cable connector of the cartridge, so that the flex circuit has little lateral flexibility, requiring a plurality of slits along its length to provide a measure of flexibility.
Tape technology data access, particularly, is largely linear, in that the tape must be wound or unwound from a reel to access data not presently at a tape head. Data access is thus linear and is slow as compared to the memory systems and the high speed hard disk drives that comprise the random access of main storage, for example, of computer systems.
Typically, once data from a data storage cartridge is accessed, other data from the same cartridge is subsequently accessed and/or the data is altered and rewritten on the data storage cartridge. The efficiency of the data transfer is thus hampered by the linear data access of the data storage cartridge media.